When Evan Robinson cast his first ballot in the 2024 presidential election, poll workers rang a bell to celebrate a first-time voter. Two years later, the Texas Southern University student urges classmates to vote in every race, but he won’t pledge loyalty to a party.
Robinson, vice president of the NAACP’s TSU unit, said most policies he supports lean Democratic, but he calls himself an Independent.
“I just feel like choosing sides, in a sense, does yourself a disservice because people then treat it like sports,” Robinson said. “They’re like, oh yeah, my team is blue, or my team is red. And no matter what they do, they support that even if it’s not in their best interest.”
With the Texas midterms weeks away, Robinson reflects on a new kind of Black voter emerging in Houston. These voters are younger and more digitally fluent. They study local races as closely as federal ones and expect candidates to earn their support. They also do not vote as a bloc.
In an August survey of 500 Black Texas voters by the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center at TSU, 77% agreed that the Democratic Party in Texas takes Black voters for granted. In metro Houston, the share was 80%. Early voting runs Oct. 19-30, and Election Day is Nov. 3.
Checking every source
Robinson grew up in an outspoken family that never let him forget what earlier generations sacrificed for the vote. As a volunteer voter registrar on campus, he tells classmates the midterms may affect them more than a presidential race because state and county officials shape daily life.
His concerns range from the cost of living to efforts to remove books and limit how Black history is taught in schools.
“If we have a whole generation of folks that don’t understand slavery or they didn’t learn about it … we’re bound to repeat it,” Robinson said. “It’s bound to happen again.”
Arielle Price came to Texas from California to study administration of justice at TSU, where she now leads the campus NAACP chapter. Growing up, she struggled to tell the parties apart. Research and work with the Democratic Party settled it, and she now votes Democrat.
Party loyalty, however, does not buy her trust.
“I hear a lot about candidates showing up right before, when you know it’s time to vote,” Price said. “That will make me feel a little bit more trust towards you as a candidate rather than just coming the week of elections and wanting us to vote for you.”
Her first ballot confused her with proposition language and offices such as the railroad commissioner. Now she tries to vote in every election, putting school board and city council races first. Her biggest concern is education funding cuts that threaten the scholarships and grants many students need.
Choosing the less harmful option
Corey Hawkins, a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native and co-chair of public policy for the Houston Metropolitan Chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, also votes as an independent. She follows independent media online but seeks out opposing views.
Hawkins said Black voters have long had to pick the lesser of two evils. She wants both parties to focus on rising costs, from groceries and gas to energy bills and Harris County property taxes.
“I think both are harmful, but we normally choose the less harmful way that will not harm us,” Hawkins said. “I think they both should be focusing on the people.”
She also reminds voters that no single council member can pass anything on their own, so residents must build coalitions across neighborhoods.
Dr. Annie Johnson Benifield has watched the Black electorate change for decades. A retired political science professor and the first African American woman to lead the League of Women Voters of Houston, she founded the Houston Voting Initiative to educate Black and underserved voters.
“African Americans cannot be single-issue voters because there are so many things that affect their lives in so many different ways. It can’t be a single issue.”
Dr. Annie Johnson Benifield
This cycle, her group has knocked on 2,000 doors of voters ages 18 to 35 and held ballot workshops at churches, libraries, and colleges. She teaches students to vet candidates using their websites, endorsements, and voting records rather than AI tools.
She said campaigns that treat Black voters as one bloc misread them.
“African Americans cannot be single-issue voters because there are so many things that affect their lives in so many different ways,” she said. “It can’t be a single issue.”
She encourages young people not to get distracted by “cute videos” and “social media trends,” but to really dig deep into the underlying messages of all candidates who run to represent them, no matter the party.
“Democracy is not a spectator sport where you have the luxury of sitting in the bleachers and watching things unfold on the floor,” Benifield said. “Rather, it’s a gladiator sport. You have to get into the arena and fight for the things that you believe in.”
